


At the Beginning

by Ottermidnight



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Getting to Know Each Other, M/M, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-07-16 14:59:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7272778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ottermidnight/pseuds/Ottermidnight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“The world must be in a pretty bad shape when it’s in need of someone like me.” Said Bucky and he pushed himself up to sitting position with his bed against the headrest.</p><p>“Actually, Mr. Barnes. That’s not the case why I woke you up. In fact, the matter is quite different. I have a good news for you. My scientists may have found a way to demolish Hydra’s program in your brain.” Bucky could not believe it when he first heard it. His world was shaken and then stopped.</p>
            </blockquote>





	At the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> English isn't my first language and this fanfic is unbetaed.  
> So if anything is wrong please tell me and I will fix it.
> 
> Enjoy.

The sun was almost set when two figures reached the top of the Beshenga waterfall in Wakanda. From where they were standing, they could see the endless emerald jungle stretching out to the vanilla twilight horizon.

The climb was challenging. It was a long journey, but T'Challa promised to Bucky that it would be worthwhile.

“The view is rather breathtaking from here, isn't it?" Said the King of Wakanda. He was a little bit breathless from the climb. T'Challa stood several steps in front on the higher ground.

"You were just boasting about it." Bucky was breathing heavily. This was the first real sweat-breaking activity after his operation. The King gave Bucky a hand to help him get to the higher ground where the King was standing. Not that Bucky was in need of the help, but he did not decline the offer. He took T'Challa's hand and climbed to the higher ground.

"I am a man with my word, James. You should know that by now anyway." They were now standing on the same level, looking at the sunset.

"I didn't that before, Your Majesty." A lopsided smile appeared on the lips of Bucky. The yellow-orange light made Bucky's hair shone in oddly bright burned marmalade-brown which gave another refreshing sight to the King.

Bucky shut his eyes down. He raised his face toward the sky and took a deep breath of fresh air in. He could smell the water and a little bit of dirt in his nostrils. "This place doesn't look like a place people would choose to come over for the weekend." He spoke to T'Challa while his eyes were still closed.  
The King's settled on the other man. Unblinking. Like he was scrutinizing a puzzle he could yet find the way to solve. 

"This is the sacred place for my people and me. No one is allowed here without my permission." Bucky reopened his eyes and turned to face T'Challa who was still looking at Bucky, but, changed into a more amiable stare.

As the result of his rapid move, some of his fore hair had fallen across his left eye. Bucky did not seem to be interested in getting the hair away from his eye. So it was T'Challa whose hand was reached out to Bucky's fallen forelock on his left eye and gently arranged it behind his ear without a word. Their eyes were locked together the whole time.

"I often came here when I was young."T'Challa cleared his throat to spoke again, preventing it all before it could get any more awkward; and it was the King who torn away and looked at the remaining tip of the sun that hadn't sunk into the horizon.

"Before you left for Oxford?" Asked Bucky. He suddenly seemed to be curious or at least, trying his best to be so. "Correct." The King confirmed.

“And now you just made me feel old.” T’Challa chuckled just a little. To him, those years were far behind and they would never come back to him again. He wasn’t going to say he had been missing them but he did miss his father, the great king of Wakanda and the great father.

“So you think you’re old? Please don’t say that word in front of me. It hurts me more that it could ever hurt you.” Bucky made a pouted face like he was so offended by T'Challa's words then he told T’Challa a bad joke he heard for one of his friends on the street of Brooklyn about what it’s like to grow old and how disgusting it is to have wrinkles on your skin. Of course, the story had nothing true in it. It was merely the children’s imagination. No facts and reality in it, but they still laughed so hard until tears ran from the corners of their eyes. 

By the time, they stopped laughing and sat down on the rocks, the stars were hung in the night sky like a sea of glittering diamonds. Bucky was mesmerized by their beauty. Growing up in the big city like New York made it hard to see the stars at night. The lights from the streetlamps and high-rises surpassed the moon and stars.  
“I never dreamt of seeing stars this much in the sky.” Bucky began. It was more like he was talking to himself or the stars above him, not to T’Challa, but the King of Wakanda knew every word meant for him to be heard.

“Or having my life back. I would never dare to dream of being able to be myself again.” Hydra planted itself inside his head for more than a half of a century even after its fall, it still lived inside him like a sick disease that could not be cured. Bucky had no control over himself. He could easily be manipulated and used as the Winter Soldier.

“Thank you, T’Challa. I owe you my life.” Bucky was sincere and simple to the King whenever it was just the two of them. T’Challa said he could him by his name as a friend would normally do and in return, the King would call Bucky by his first name, James. As calling him ‘Bucky’ only make him think of his past more.

None of these what he would think they’re possible five years or even a month ago. 

“Greeting, Mr. Barnes.” Bucky was greeted by a familiar voice when he opened his eyes, he saw the King of Wakanda, standing in the doctor white gown.

“You will experience a series of nausea and headache as the side effects of the deep sleep temporary you just came out.” The King warned Bucky before he could try to push himself up from the bed successfully.

“It’s not my first time I wake up from the deep sleep. I’m used to them, but it’s the first time I have been warned.” It's a heartwarming feeling to have someone cared for you.

“With pleasure, Mr. Barnes.”

“How long I…” His throat was dried and it was hard to finish the whole sentence.

“How long were you asleep?” T’Challa finished the question for Bucky who didn't fully awaken. Bucky nodded in affirmation that the King’s guessing was right.

“You slept for four years.”

“Quite asleep.” It didn't surprise Bucky at all that he slept for four years. He usually slept more than four years. But the thing that had never changed was how awful it felt like everything he freshly woke up.

“The world must have changed a lot.” It was a rhetorical question to ask or someone would say this is one of the most nonsense questions someone could have asked.

“Indeed.” T’Challa did not make any further comment.

“The world must be in a pretty bad shape when it’s in need of someone like me.” Said Bucky and he pushed himself up to sitting position with his bed against the headrest. It was neither comfortable nor desirable position to be in at the moment but Bucky knew he would feel better not long after when he start standing up straight. At least that was what he commonly did anyway. It might only be a habit and if that was the case, he would still want to keep it.

“Actually, Mr. Barnes. That’s not the case why I woke you up. In fact, the matter is quite different. I have a good news for you. My scientists may have found a way to demolish Hydra’s program in your brain.” Bucky could not believe it when he first heard it. His world was shaken and then stopped.

“I’m willing to try anything.” He told the King. Bucky was willing to risk everything to make his life mean something more than hiding and laying low for the rest of his life.

“I’ve no doubt, Mr. Barnes. You’re a brave soldier. But the operation has a very high percentage of unforeseeable risk.” T’Challa wanted Bucky to understand everything carefully beforehand.

“With respect, it doesn’t matter, Your Majesty. I’ve been living my life on the line for a very long time.” Nothing could be riskier.

Back to the top of the waterfall where they were standing. The percentage of the operation failure was almost fifty percent and that was a month ago. The operation went smoothly and there was nothing Bucky should be concerned about, however, he needed to be under supervision for at least another three months time. Still, it was all too good to be true for Bucky. At one point during the climbing, he wondered whether it was just another sweet dream or not.

“Thank you.” He replied it again because it was the only thing he could think of at that time.

“You know James. When I, first took, an advanced mathematic class, I was insufferable and hopeless. I was the slowest in my class. I was behind everyone and I almost gave up. It was my professor who called me into his office and had a talk with me then he said ‘If there is a will, there is a way.’ He said it’s an Austrian sententious from his teacher when he was in the same situation as I was at that time and he told this to me because I reminded him of who he used to be.” The thin smile Bucky saw on T’Challa’s face was different from any smile he had ever seen. It’s warm but it was not all the way amiable. There was something more in it, something Bucky could not describe, but not the kind of smile he never saw before. Yes, Bucky had seen it on someone’s face before. Though, he could not quite place when or who that person was.

“Are you going to say that I also reminded you of your former self by any chance?” Bucky was curious, partly on what T’Challa was going to say next and mainly on another person who he knew from his memory with the smile.

“Hardly.” The King thought about the answer carefully. “I was going to say that everything is possible if your will is strong enough. And to answer your question, I see no myself or others in you.” When Bucky’s eyes met the King’s eyes again, he realized how serious the King was and it made him feel uneasy because he could not return his feeling or say the same thing back to T’Challa, the King of Wakanda who was very generous to him after the incident in Siberia. 

“My mother said we’re all different and unique in our own ways.” Thinking about his mother wasn't something Bucky often come across. He knew his mother was a lovely lady and this was all he could recall of hers. Not even her face or her name he could remember. There was still a long road waiting for Bucky to recover his memory. 

“In Wakanda, we also have the same belief.” The King looked into Bucky’s eyes one more time and this time Bucky realized who T’Challa reminded him of, it was his best childhood friend, Steve Roger who he had not seen for years since he was put in the deep sleep under the protection of Wankada’s current king. He missed Steve and he wondered would Steve also feel the same thing for him.

Then they saw a comet falling from the sky. Bucky closed his eyes to make a wish.

“What did you do?” At the time T’Challa asked him, he was done with making a wish. “Make a wish.” Explained Bucky.

“With a comet?” The King rose his eyebrow and acquisition. He never saw anyone making a wish with a shooting star before. “My mother said your wish may come true.” This was the second thing he recalled from his mother on that day. Another improvement.

“So what did you make a wish for?” T’Challa was more than curious to know.

“In my culture, we don’t tell other people what we’re wishing for until the wish has come true, Your majesty.” Even though he didn't have to, he still called T’Challa by his title so often. Bucky heard T’Challa sighed. “So I must wait?” The King narrowed his eyes down. 

“I’m afraid you must wait.” 

“As there is a saying in English ‘Patience is a virtue’ and I am a very patient man, James. You shall see.” T’Challa respected Bucky’s decision. The King did not press him furthermore.

“I bet you are.” Said Bucky.

Soon, their subject was changed to various things as they laid down on the rocks along with ferns and mosses, looking at the milky way above them. T’Challa began to tell him the tales and legends which had been handed down from a generation to another generation within and echoed in the thick jungle of Wakanda. Bucky was amazed at all the telltales at the point where he thought he could listen to them and T’Challa’s soft baritone voice with the hint of his native accent from his mother of tongue all night and he did.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading my fanfic.  
> Comments and kudos are appreciated.


End file.
